Leon Camp grew angry at God after his wife, her 6-year-old daughter and his little sister went missing in 1992.

“I couldn't understand any of it,” he said. “I got mad at God. I just quit going to church. I almost gave up.

Leon Camp

“I couldn't understand why God had let this happen.”

His wife, Wendy Camp, 23, left their Oklahoma City home to visit her son on May 29, 1992. The boy was then 4 and lived with his father, Chad Noe, in Shamrock.

Going with her were her daughter, Cynthia Britto, and sister-in-law, Lisa Renee Kregear, 22.

Their skeletal remains were found in April in a grave in northeast Oklahoma on property once belonging to Chad Noe's grandmother and uncle, authorities have said.

The uncle, Grover Prewitt Jr., is charged with being an accessory to first-degree murder after the fact. He is accused of helping his mother, Ida Prewitt, and other family members conceal the bodies in 1992. He pleaded not guilty through his attorney in a court appearance Friday.

Ida Prewitt died in 2011. No one has been charged directly in the deaths.

‘It hurt bad'

For Leon Camp, the first year after his wife disappeared was rough. His last memory of his wife is her kissing him goodbye and telling him she loved him.

He said he became self-destructive. He remembers hitting his hand against solid pieces of wood. “It hurt bad,” he said.

He ended up seeking a psychiatrist and taking anti-depressants.

For years, he said, he moved from city to city, often staying with relatives, and became a workaholic to forget. He kept on his wedding ring for a couple of years after the disappearance. He never remarried. He lost all his photos of Wendy when he couldn't pay the fees on a storage place in Texas.

He had a heart attack in 2000. He went blind in one eye.

He said he reconciled with God after hitting rock bottom in Woodward.

‘A wake-up call'

His car broke down. He got fired from a convenience store. He was about to be evicted because he couldn't pay his rent.

“I had a wake-up call,” he said.

“I decided to put my foot down and serve God like I'm supposed to. I was raised in a religious home and my parents took us to church. I knew to do right. I was just running from God and I decided I've had enough of this. I decided to give my life completely to the Lord,” he said.

“If it hadn't been for God, I'd probably be no telling where. I trust and believe in Him. He's helped me through all this.”

Leon Camp, 58, now lives with another sister, Manell Morris, and her husband in Pratt, Kan. He works at a job he likes at a hospital.

Morris, 55, has struggled, too, over the years. She said she often prayed the three were still alive somehow.

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by Nolan Clay

Sr. Reporter

Nolan Clay was born in Oklahoma and has worked as a reporter for The Oklahoman since 1985. He covered the Oklahoma City bombing trials and witnessed bomber Tim McVeigh's execution. His investigative reports have brought down public officials,...